Agency workforce market was ‘damaging to relational social work’

Reforms to the use of agency social workers are having a positive impact, Rachael Wardell says,

Speaking to Social Work Today after her opening address at the annual Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) conference, President Rachael Wardell says the work to reduce local authority reliance on costly agency staff was starting to bear fruit.

“It's a good news story as far as I'm concerned,” Ms Wardell said.

“We all recognise that there's always going to be a role for agency workers, but the way that the market was functioning was damaging to relational social work and it was increasing costs but not improving the quality of practice.”

National rules aimed at reducing over-reliance on agency social workers within children’s services which came into force at the end of October last year, initially as statutory guidance for local authorities. Following sector-wide pressure, and continued work by children’s services leaders in ADCS, there are now legislative changes on the way in the forthcoming Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which will shape the way agency staff are used.

“Even though the bill has yet to be enacted, what we've seen is the market changing in response to what they know is going to come. We now have more permanently employed social workers right across the board and we are seeing a reduction in the use of agency staff—and I would expect once the Bill is law, that that will continue.

“I think we’ve achieved what we set out to achieve, which was much greater level of permanent workforce and that's in the interest of children and families.”

Ms Wardell warned however that the myriad legislative changes currently progressing through Parliament could affect their effective implementation.

“There are inherent risks in the sheer amount of reform coming at us from every direction,” the ADCS President said in her speech, noting the simultaneous legislative changes in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, long-anticipated SEND reform alongside local government re-organisation and a new ‘model blueprint’ for Integrated Care Boards (ICB).

“I think the particular one that is worrying for a lot of us is local government re-organisation, which is happening on a very fast pace,” Ms Wardell said after the speech, adding that the flagship children’s social care reforms and the SEND reforms expected this autumn are changes the sector generally feels positive about, but that local government re-organisation could divert attention.

“We had a session on it earlier in the week where and it was clear from councils have gone through it before that it has to be treated at a very high priority. So it's really hard to see how that can be undertaken well at the same time as such hard-hitting reforms in other core parts of our business.”

Ms Wardell also spoke about the ongoing crisis of child poverty, noting that billions are spent addressing the symptoms, while very little is done to tackle the cause.

“So we have very few levers as [directors of children’s services] to tackle the causes of child poverty. We are in the business of mitigating the consequences.

“It is absolutely something that needs to be tackled on a national level, and part of our task as an association is to continue to advocate for the fact that the root causes need to be tackled, not just the mitigations put in place.

Ms Wardell said specifically, that the ‘two child cap’—which restricts the payment of child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children in a family—should be a priority to be scrapped.
“A government that is serious about child poverty would remove that cap as a starting point, and measures that directly address insecure income and insecure housing are probably at the root cause of so much of the harm that we see arising from poverty.”
Despite the high-level policy discussion, Ms Wardell never shies away from the need to focus on how loving relationships must form the basis of any policy, emotionally explaining: “Before you can think about what love looks like in policy terms, I think you have to have experienced it.

“I think if you're a human being who has that experience, then you carry it into your thoughts about policy and policy making […] Does it feel loving? Does it feel caring? Does it feel like these people have my best interests at heart? Does it feel like it's bureaucratic administrative tick in a box?
“I think all of us who have had the benefit of being loved and cared for, can feel the difference between when something is going through the motions or when something comes from the heart. That's what I feel about it and how I respond to changes in legislation and people talking about policy.”